The William Mize Home Page

Poetry Time – “Hokusai Says” by Roger Keyes

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:28:25 +0000

I don’t know a lot about Roger Keyes, but I think we all know a bit about Hokusai.
We’ve all seen his world famous wood block painting called The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

What I’ve been able to crib together about Roger Keyes is that he’s a scholar on Japanese art, focusing on Hokusai and this may be the only poem he’s ever written.

If I’m correct, and this is the only poem he’s written, damn is it an amazing one.
If I’m wrong, and he’s still writing poetry, then he needs a book deal like now.

Take a deep breath, get comfortable, and enjoy this sublime work of art.

Hokusai says Look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing.

He says Look Forward to getting old.

He says keep changing, you just get more who you really are.

He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself as long as it’s interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child, every one of us is ancient, every one of us has a body.

He says every one of us is frightened.

He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive –shells, buildings, people, fish,mountains, trees.

Wood is alive.

Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books.

It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.

It doesn’t matter if you sit at home and stare at the ants on your verandah

or the shadows of the trees and grasses in your garden.

It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is Life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength is life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.

He says don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid.

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

Was I right?
I mean, wow – what a great poem.
So simple, so instructive, so kind, so gentle, so accepting.

Do you think your life would change for the better if you read this poem and perhaps brought some of the suggestions into your own life?
Do you think that you would be calmer, happier, more peaceful?
Perhaps more loving?
More accepting?

We often hear about works of art changing people’s lives.
Maybe this poem could help change yours.

Amazon Time!

Buy A Print Book, Get The eBook For Free!

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:08:33 +0000

That’s right, people!
Starting now, and for the foreseeable future, if you purchase a print copy of Resurrection Angel and/or Everlasting Life, I will send you the eBooks for free!

That means that not only will you have a nice smelling, hefty, page flipping copy of the book, but you will also have an eBook that you can load onto a device of your choice and take Denton and Monty with you, without even missing a beat.

Here’s how this is going to work:
- Go here, to my Lulu.com page. There you will find any and all of my books that are in print and for sale.
- Buy one. Heck, buy both of them.
- Send me your Lulu.com email receipt. Merely forward the email to my email address, willmize at gmail.com
- Hopefully, within 24 hours, I will send you a zipped file with three files. An ePub version, a MOBI version and a PDF version of the book(s) that you purchased. I’m a compulsive email checker, so you will probably get it within the hour, if not mere minutes.

About the files:
- The ePub is for the Nook, and Apple’s iBooks.
- The MOBI is for the Amazon Kindle, Kindle Apps and Kindle Software.
- The PDF is in case you don’t have any of the above.

That’s it!
As easy as falling off a log, as my grandmother would say.

A few notes to answer a few questions:
- Yes, you have to buy it from Lulu.com.
- No, I’m not available for tech support to help you load these items into the vehicle of your choice.

I wish you all – my fans, my readers, my friends – a happy, merry, get-what-you-want, celebrate-it-how-you-see-fit holiday season!

We Have A Winner!

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:06:17 +0000

That’s right, people.
The contest has come to a close and through the magic of a random number generator and the ability to count from 1 to 86, we have a winner of the signed set of Resurrection Angel and Everlasting Life.

It’s Diedra Robinson of Birmingham, Alabama.

I’m contacting Diedra right now and we’re going to get those signed and sent out to her as soon as possible so she (or someone of her choosing) gets them before Christmas.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to make with the clicking of the LIKE button and entered the contest.
I do hope you’ll stick around for commentary on publishing, instruction on writing, news on any appearances I may be making and of course, orders to assault amazon when my new book, Spear of Destiny comes out.

Have a great holiday season!

And The Winner Is…

Win A Set of Autographed Books!

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:15:58 +0000

A quick reminder that on the morning of Thursday, December 1st, I’m going to be giving away, for FREE, a set of personally autographed books.
That’s right!
You get an immediate complete (as of now) Denton and Monty collection and all you have to do is head over to my Facebook Fan Page and make with the click on the “LIKE” button.
Or, if you’re super lazy, you can scroll down on this page, look to the right, find my Facebook Fan Page widget and click “LIKE”.

And just like that, you’re entered!

If you’re the winner, I will contact you via Facebook and let you know.
Then you’ll need to give me your mailing address and the name of the person you’d like the books inscribed to.

Just like that, you get a copy of Resurrection Angel and Everlasting Life, autographed and ready to take up a place of honor on your bookshelves, or ready to sell on eBay to finance your mortgage.
One of those.

I hope that if you’re reading this, you will tweet it, retweet it, forward it via email to your friends, post it to your Facebook profile and send the word via smoke signal to anyone and everyone you know.

So get with the clicking and good luck!

Autographed Copies Now Available on Amazon

Wagner, Tolkien and The Ring

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:43:18 +0000

Opera is a very polarizing form of music.
You either love it or you hate it, there’s rarely an in-between.
You have a CD collection the size of a small bus, or you think opera is pretty much a fat lady in a helmet with horns.
It’s an obsession or you just can’t be bothered.

I’ve wondered just what causes this massive dichotomy between lovers and haters, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the haters just didn’t have the right start. They didn’t listen to something user friendly, they didn’t have the proper gateway drug. They were pushed off the cliff into the deep end of the spectrum and expected to start swimming immediately.
And of course, that would be under the heading of wrong.

I hope that I have found something for you, you opera haters (or at least opera neutrals) that will be under the heading of right.

I’m going to give you that first hit, that first toke, that great little morsel of information, history and music that just might turn you into an opera fan.

It’s a little NPR broadcast called “The Ring And I”, and in it, you’re going to learn about one of the masters of opera, Richard Wagner.
But don’t panic!
We’re going to learn about Wagner and his four opera Ring Cycle in such a way that I hope you will be chomping at the bit to learn more, to listen more to explore more about Wagner’s work.

We’re going to learn about Wagner by talking about Tolkien.
Huh?
That’s right! We’re going to learn just how a doddering old linguistics professor took some of the story, motifs and symbolism from Wagner’s Ring Cycle and turned it into one of the greatest fantasy classics of all time.
We’re going to learn about The Lord of The Rings and The Ring Cycle.
We’re going to learn about Richard Wagner and J.R.R. Tolkien.
We’re going to learn about music, melody, counter melody, and leit motif.

What I really love about the Radiolab piece is that it shows the many facets of creativity in our lives.
I want you to realize that you don’t have to be a poet, novelist, artist or some other officially branded ‘artist’ to be creative.
I want you to realize that you can be passionate about something that you love, and bring that passion into your every day life.
I want you to realize that you can step outside the box, outside the definition of ‘creativity’ and ‘art’ and make something wonderful.

I hope that you enjoy “The Ring And I”.

No related posts.

The New Bookmarks Are Here!

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:12:22 +0000

The branding continues!
The new bookmarks are here, and thanks to the great folks at Overnight Prints, I now have some great new bookmarks to throw at people as they walk past my table at seminars and conventions.

Twenty bucks for 100 bookmarks. Bargain!

Who doesn’t need bookmarks? No one!
We’ve all probably got a half a dozen books on our nightstand in various degrees of progress, and we’re all also probably tired of bending corners (sacreledge!) or pieces of Kleenex, Post It Notes, or any other random object to mark our place.

If you don’t plan on seeing me at a convention any time soon, you can also get some free swag!

Send a Self-Addressed-Stamped-Envelope to the P.O. Box address listed on the inside cover of my books, and I will throw some bookmarks in there and send it right back to you!

Moo Cards Printfinity and Novel Marketing

Pretty Little eReaders, All In A Row

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:07:37 +0000

This was the scene this weekend at Target, of all places.
They’ve been remodeling and redecorating, moving stuff around and this was a prominent set up in the Technology section. Those are five different eReaders displayed there.
And right next to it, another empty display that was marked for Amazon’s various Kindles.

If you’re a reader this has got to be a happy time for you.
Thousands upon thousands of books, at your fingertips.

If you’re a writer, this has got to be a happy time for you.
IF you have your books all converted, uploaded and ready for sale in each of these stores.

The times they are a changing, and you as a reader and you as a writer are going to benefit from them.

NecronomiCon – Focus Group on Self-Publishing

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:20:57 +0000

This is what you’ve been waiting for, people.

This past weekend, at NecronomiCon, Andrea Dean VanScoyoc and I reunited to speak about self-publishing.
We haven’t done this particular little talk since 2008 and we discussed it on Facebook and decided we’d get together and try to help some other budding novelists get started in the world of self-publishing.

And I also created a word called “illegitimisize” or something like that.

I hope that you’ll give it a listen, get something out of it, and even share on your website, Facebook or Twitter.
If you’re looking for our websites or links to places or businesses that we mentioned, expand the description of the video on the YouTube website and you’ll see them all gathered there for your convenience.

Part One:

Part Two:

Newspapers: Dying A Painful Death

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:44:33 +0000

There are a dozen or more different reasons that newspapers are dying, and they are responding in two predictable ways: fire people and raise prices.
Exhibit A, the attached photo, shows just how desperate our local paper is getting.
It’s only a matter of time and newspapers, along with a local vehicle for spreading great investigative journalism will be dead.

No related posts.

Sunday Morning Plotting Session at Panera

willmize@yahoo.com (William Mize) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 13:42:39 +0000

I’ve always considered writers block to be a condition where you don’t have enough information.
Enough information about the characters.
Enough information about what needs to happen.
Enough information about what you want to say.

The above photo is me, trying to correct this situation.I need to immerse myself in this world, this book, these characters, until I feel comfortable and instinctively know that all is well and all will be well.